Fading Hopes

While Malaysian officials are announcing the safe return of 26 Malaysians from Maoxin in Sichuan, who were stranded in the earthquake-affected area for five days, the Chinese rescue teams have faded their hopes in searching for miraculous for quake survivors across Sichuan Province. The latest death roll is reported at 32,476 including 31,978 in Sichuan Province and 220,109 injured and 100,000 others were still buried and presumed death.

About 1800 years ago, large percentage of 16 Million of population was wiped out during one of the bloodiest in Chinese History- Three Kingdoms (AD220-280) namely Cao Wei, Dong Wu and Shu Han.
Thousand were dead over the same piece of land 1800 years ago and this time it is the natural disaster devastated the area. One fact remains unchanged, thousand had died.

Without the aid of present scientific deadly weapons and technology, these Three Kingdoms or Three Empires were never able to consolidate the power of the imperial throne against the mighty magnates and military leaders. War was the only solution to unify China. All they could rely on were the Art of Warfare, wisdom and intelligence, sense of strategy.

The Kingdom of Shu Han (AD221-263) was established by Liu Bei (present-day Sichuan) assisted by his advisor, the most popular and well-known name in every family of China, Zhuge Liang who has always been regarded as the embodiment of intelligence and wisdom. Zhege Liang was born in a turbulent times where there was unbridled fighting among powerful military commanders and of widespread political corruption. Faced with the social reality of ceaseless fighting, he decided to have nothing to do with contemporary politics and made good use of his time, read intensively the works of various ancient philosophers and studied descriptions of historical events and figures and analyzed social reality, probing the causes that had led to the decline of Eastern Han Dynasty before he accepted the post as an advisor for Liu Bei. It was only through the studying and labouring in the fields, Zhuge Liang began to understand the sufferings of the people and gained knowledge of the situation of the world.

At Zhege Liang’s advice, the fifty thousand of allied troops of Liu Bei and Sun Quan defeatd Cao Cao’s mighty army of over a thousand men at the Red Wall (Chibi).

Northern China was dominated by Cao Cao, who had established The Kingdom of Wei (AD22-265). Cao Cao was extraordinary talented in administration, diplomacy and military affairs. In the famous battle of Guandu, Cao Cao, with combined courage and strategy, defeated Yuan Shao’s army of 200,000 which was numerically superior and more powerful. He bought the entire middle and lower Huanghe River Valley under his control.

In those days, laws were never applied to a sovereign. However there was once when Cao Cao was riding at the head of his troops along a narrow path in some wheat fields, after he had commanded that no one should be allowed to trample on the wheat and that anyone who disobeyed should be beheaded, his own horse rushed into the wheat fields. He said to his men: “How can I expect my troops to follow me if I myself violate the military laws I made. But I am the Commander in Chief. Without me the army would leaderless. So it behooves me to mete out my own punishment.” After he said these words, he drew his sword and cut off his head-dress in place of his head.

Throughout the political history of Malaysia, do we have a Zhuge Liang who understands the sufferings of the people and able to penetrate views on our present political situation? Do we have a Cao Cao, a talented strategist and outstanding statesman who can uphold the notion of ‘no one is above the law’?